U.S. Postal Service logs busiest day, but there is still time for last-minute Santas

By Pierrette J. ShieldsLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
12/16/2013 04:27:33 PM MST

Updated:
12/16/2013 04:29:44 PM MST

J.B. Dillon, a carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, delivers mail on Monday to a customer on Fifth Avenue. Monday was expected to be the busiest day of the holiday season, a USPS spokesman said.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

Grace Burgess walked out of the Longmont Post Office on Monday afternoon with a big grin on her face, having accomplished her mission to send a package of gifts to her great-grandsons in Oklahoma.

The 2-year-old and 5-month-old boys will get their presents in plenty of time. As she left, she said the busiest day of the year for the service was a good experience.

"The line is very fast," she called out, victorious. She noticed that the postal staff was taking pains to move things along, she said.

Burgess spent only 15 minutes in line, compared to a normal trip when she routinely waits a half hour, she said.

David Rupert, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Colorado, said Monday will be the busiest day of the holiday season, with 604 million packages and letters mailed.

U.S. Postal Service mail carrier J.B. Dillon sorts mail to be delivered to along his Terry Street route on Monday.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

The entire holiday season will see 15 billion parcels moved. The busiest day doesn't fall on the same day every year. Instead, the postal service predicts the heaviest day by weighing factors such as when Thanksgiving falls and busy shopping weekends.

"We've been doing this for 235 years, so we kind of have a good gauge of how people act," Rupert said.

Traffic at the Longmont post office was steady with lots of residents carrying armloads of packages in and clutching receipts as they came out. Some looked wary of the holiday crunch, but some were outright festive in garb and attitude.

Bill and Lizzie Hearn opted to send their packages to Florida and New Mexico using a machine that weighs packages and dispenses postage -- no postal employee needed.

"This post office is always busy," Bill Hearn said. "No matter what time of day I come."

Lizzie Hearn said they sell books on Amazon.com and have plenty of experience posting packages. The automated machine helped, they said, noting they were slowed only by a customer in front of them who had to send four packages.

Rupert said there is no need for customers to physically go to the post office to send packages. Customers can buy flat-rate boxes and pay for and print postage online at usps.com. The website allows customers to summon their carriers to pick up the packages."We'll even give you a little discount for doing it that way," Rupert said, noting that carriers visit homes anyway and it keeps customers out of lobbies. "That is something that people really ought to take advantage of and it works really well."

While Monday was the busiest postal day of the season, Rupert said it was hardly a deadline.

"This Friday is our cutoff for cards and letters to get delivered by Christmas. Saturday is the cut-off for priority mail," he said.

For those who insist on living on the edge, he said, priority express mail sent on Monday will reach its destination by Christmas Day for a higher fee. Larger markets, like Denver, will have delivery on Christmas Day.

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